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It all starts with this.  To spend an hour gathering flower petals to make something I love, then photograph it, then write a fairy story about it and post it, is one of my biggest joys in the summer. I feel like my entire personality lightens up about seven shades.  I collect white, pink, and dark pink beach rose petals and other wildflowers and let them dry. Then I bring my fairy down to the beach and photograph her among the lupine and beach rose bushes.  There was a time when belief in the fairies, also known as "The Wee Folk" was not very strong. The Beach Rose Fairy is a symbol of summer, of the Summer Solstice, particularly of Litha, an ancient Festival, a Celtic version of Mid-Summer, celebrated by the pagans.  Among rituals of Litha which includes celebrating life and living things, Nature and its spirits, it is a special time to recognize the Fairy Realm, through folklore and fantasy, poetry, and creativity.  With each Beach Fairy I create, I try to incorporate this reverence for Nature and the Fairy Realm.  I'm lucky to live five minutes from the sea. I collect beach rose petals that have fallen to the ground to make these lovely fairy dresses, which smell so good!  My Summer Beauties, I call them. The bodice is made from birch and the dress is made from dried beach roses and leaves. Adorned with the tiny bud of a beach rose.    Count Dracula had his Brides, and the Ferrishyn (fairy tribe of Tanglewood) have theirs. 
This is the Reindeer Muse, the Queen's own poet. Every day, she alights to a sunny spot to collect the sun and her thoughts for a new verse she'll take back to the Queen and court for the evening.
This is Lady of The White Thorn. This tiny fairy is the protector of the white thorn, a special tree in County Clare that sat alone in a vast meadow of green. Workers refused to cut it down, for it was the site of a fairy dwelling.
This is Beach Rose White Fairy. Her skirt is perfumed by the rose petals gathered by the sea and the adornments are wildflowers; she is the sweetest smelling fairy, long after the flowers have gone by. She is a close ally to the Merrow, the sea fairies who communicate with their counterparts on land.  I'm busy making fairies, literary dresses and miniature scenes for an upcoming Small Works Show that I'll be in this Saturday, October 5. Here are a few of the fairies that will be hanging at this show. Beach Rose fairy with pink wash on bodice and lichen skirt. 
A Tree Shifter made from birch, lichen, moss, fungi and washed with green watercolor. 
A fall fairy   There, in the early morning light, one was spotted on rain-dampened ferns.  Her skirt is perfumed by the rose petals gathered by the sea and the adornments are dried bramble and flowers; she is the sweetest smelling fairy, long after the flowers have gone by. She is a close ally to the Merrow, the sea fairies who communicate with their counterparts on land.     Summer is long gone. The fields are covered in a light dusting of snow. But the Beach Rose Fairy still holds endless summer days within her.  Made from birch bark and dried beach rose buds collected in Camden, Maine by the harbor, the little fairy dress is adorned with other dried tiny flowers.  A tiny unopened bud serves as the adornment. This dress is so fragrant, that even in winter, you can close your eyes and picture the beach.  The dress measures 4 inches, is stitched up the back with pink thread and comes with its own whimsical fairy hanger.  Another spotting of a sweet beach rose fairy as summer turns to fall.  Her underskirt is perfumed by the rose petals gathered by the sea and the adornments are dried bramble and flowers; she is the sweetest smelling fairy, long after the flowers have gone by. She is a close ally to the Merrow, the sea fairies who communicate with their counterparts on land.
More details up close.  Her bodice is stitched up the back with hot pink thread. Find out more on how to win a Wee Folk fairy through our Instagram page!
 © Kay Stephens These are sociable fairies and they hide in the beach roses lining the ocean during the day. On a full moon, like we had the other night, they come out to watch the seals in the cove as they dart around and flank the translucent squid, attacking them for their meal. The Beach Rose Red fairies find that completely amusing and "in the grove of great rose-trees, with the moon shining on it as bright as day, and thousands of nightingales singing in the branches"* the Wee Folk dance the night away.
Here is a closer look at them. They are made from birch bark collected on my property and dried beach roses collected by the sea in Maine. They smell wonderful. The back of the bodice is laced up with pale pink thread.  *Excerpt from The Story of Fairyfoot by Francis Browne (Through The Fairy Halls of My Bookhouse, Chicago Publishers, The Bookhouse for Children, 1920)
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Tonic of the Woods
the inspiration behind the creations Photos, stories and concept ©Kay Stephens
Look up the story behind a fairy dress by clicking on the name below
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